Mark Stephens
Mark Stephens '(April 3, 1969) is a Canadian sports announcer and commentator currently signed to 'Strong Style Wrestling (SSW) as its play-by-play commentator and Elite Answers Wrestling (EAW) as a part-time producer and mentor. Stephens is best known as the longtime lead play-by-play commentator for North American Glory Wrestling (NAGW). He began announcing when he was 17 years old for an indie wrestling promotion in Toronto. He is most notable for his stellar knowledge of professional wrestling, as well as his advanced vocabulary and dramatic style. He has commentary experience in professional wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts events. Early Life Stephens was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is the eldest child in a family of six. He has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was four years old, and started to find a real love for mixed martial arts during high school. Stephens graduated from Hudson College. Career Commentator Early Career Stephens began his journalism career as a radio host for his high school at the age of 15, where he would provide nightly updates of news about the school. After a few weeks, the show (then called The Stephens Hour) began to grow a fan base surrounding it, and Stephens expanded the show to allow students to call-in and chat, and even going as far as doing dares live on air. Upon graduating, The Stephens Hour came to an end after two and a half years. During the final few months of the show being on the air, Stephens was contacted by a local wrestling promoter Geoff Jefferson, who had just started up a local indie promotion called Toronto Underground Wrestling. On April 7, 1986, just four days after his 17th birthday, Stephens agreed to be the color commentator for Toronto Underground Wrestling. Toronto Underground Wrestling (1986 - 1988) Stephens provided color commentary for TUW between 1986 and 1988. His play-by-play commentator was Ross Daniels. On June 14, 1988, Toronto Underground Wrestling closed its doors after filing for bankruptcy, and Stephens parted ways with Geoff Jefferson. Canadian Wrestling Extreme (1988 - 1992) Almost immediately after his stint with TUW, Stephens signed a multi-year deal with up-and-coming wrestling promotion Canadian Wrestling Extreme to become the play-by-play commentator for its main show, "Turmoil Tuesday". The promotion soon became one of Canada's highest rated wrestling shows in the late 80's/early 90's. In 1990, Stephens also began to promote the company in North America, and CWE made history as they begun to air Turmoil Tuesday in North America in June of the same year. In December 1992, Stephens announced that he would leave the company after four years to move onto bigger things for his career. MMA Premier Fighter (1993 - 1999) On March 1, 1993, MMA Premier Fighter held a press conference in New York City to announce its newest lead announcer, Mark Stephens. Stephens confirmed that he had signed a one-year deal with the company, and was looking forward to announcing its PPV broadcasts. After only four months, Stephens re-signed to a four year multi-year contract and continued to be the show's lead announcer. On August 11, 1997, Stephens and MMA Premier Fighter agreed to a part-time deal, so Stephens could focus on opportunities outside of the promotion. On March 1, 1999, after exactly six years with the company, Stephens announced that he would part ways to return to commentating professional wrestling. Strong-Style Japanese Wrestling Alliance (2000 - 2001; 2005) Stephens became the English play-by-play commentator for Strong-Style Japanese Wrestling Alliance, an indie promotion based in Kyoto, Japan. He was paired with long-time friend of the business Bryan Murphy. Stephens parted ways with the company due to unknown personal reasons in November 2001. It was revealed a few months later that Mark Stephens was having problems with management of the promotion, who had threatened to fire him for minor errors, cut his pay in half on some occasions, and to replace him on commentary with somebody else. In February 2005, Mark Stephens returned for one night only to guest commentate the main event of SSJWA: Persistence. North American Glory Wrestling (2002 - 2010; sporadic appearances) Mark Stephens agreed to become the play-by-play commentator for North American Glory Wrestling in April 2002 after taking a few months off. Stephens revealed that he had received close to 75 offers from wrestling, MMA and boxing promotions from around the world, but agreed to settle with NAGW because he felt it not only had the best to offer him, but felt as if though the culture surrounded the promotion had the best chance to succeed long term. In December 2004, Mark Stephens entered a rivalry with fellow color commentator Barry Austin, after having a disagreement over a certain wrestler in the main events of one of the episodes. It resulted with Stephens walking out on Austin, leaving him to commentate the rest of the match. The next week, Stephens apologised in the ring to his partner, but ultimately hit him over the head with a microphone, turning heel for the first time in his career. On May 29, the two had a match at NAWG's biggest wrestling PPV of the year, Guts & Glory, with the stipulation being that the loser had to leave the commentary booth. Stephens won with the help villainous stable at the time, Ex-Factor. Barry Austin actually did get replaced on commentary after parting ways with the company by Bryan Murphy, Stephens' former partner for SSJWA and long-time friend. In February 2006, Mark Stephens began to slowly turn babyface again, showing love to the fan-favorites of the promotion's roster and praising high key matches. On the March 8 episode of Carnage, the NAGW Champion at the time Buck Boomer assaulted Mark Stephens after cutting a promo in the ring. The following week, Mark Stephens opened the show and asked for a match with Boomer, but was ultimately beat down again. Stephens, however, would keep pushing for a match, and actually cost Buck Boomer the NAGW Championship on the March 22 episode of Carnage. This led to Boomer finally agreeing to a match at NAGW Persevere, where Boomer defeated Stephens in an Anything Goes match. Boomer failed in an attempt to assault Stephens after the match after Luke Savage made the save. At Guts & Glory 2010, Mark Stephens announced that he would be stepping down as lead announcer for NAGW to take time off from his journalistic career as a whole. At Guts & Glory 2014, Mark Stephens made a shock return to commentate the main event of the show. In September, NAGW announced that Mark Stephens would be inducted into the NAGW Hall of Fame ceremony, which took place on December 19. On a February 2015 edition of Carnage, Mark Stephens took part in the Roast of Buck Boomer segment. At NAGW Persevere 2015, Mark Stephens was the guest play-by-play commentator for the PPV. With rumors stirring that he'd be making a return to NAGW full-time, Stephens quickly shot those rumors down saying that he was not yet ready to commit to a full-time role with any promotion. Infinite Pro Wrestling (2017) On February 2017, Mark Stephens announced that he would be making his long awaited return to the commentary booth, agreeing to be the play-by-play commentator for Infinite Pro Wrestling. On November 21, Mark Stephens was released from the company before a debut show for the federation could be produced. Elite Answers Wrestling (2017 - present) On December 2017, it was announced that Mark Stephens had signed a part-time contract with Elite Answers Wrestling as a producer/mentor to assist in helping some of the current on-air journalists, interviewers and commentators with the company grow more confident in their skills and abilities. Stephens also occasionally writes articles for the EAW website. Strong Style Wrestling (2018 - present) ''' On January 10, 2018, Strong Style Wrestling and Stephens came to an agreement on a full-time multi-year commentary deal. This would mark his first time commentating for a Japanese promotion since 2005; 13 years since SSJWA. '''Television Host and Internet Podcast In mid 2011, Mark Stephens started his own weekly internet podcast for boxing and mixed-martial arts called, "All Things Fighting" ''through iTunes. The show featured professional boxers, MMA fighters and notable names in the fighting world as guests. The podcast became defunct in early 2012. On November 2011, he became the host for ''"Mixed-Martial Amateurs", ''a reality television program that featured amateur fighters try and compete for a professional fighting contract. The show only lasted one season. In January 2013, ''"All Things Fighting" ''returned and was featured on multiple platforms such as SoundCloud, PodcastOne and YouTube. As of early 2017, there have been a total of 203 episodes of the podcast. Personal Life Stephens met his wife Rochelle Carter at an MMA event in 1992 in Chicago, Illinois. They married in February 1995. Stephens' first son, Matthew Stephens, was born on March 8, 1996. Stephens' first daughter, Margot Stephens, was born on October 2, 1998. In Wrestling '''Nicknames' * "The Mother Bucker" * "The Voice of Professional Wrestling" Awards North American Glory Wrestling * North American Glory Hall of Fame (Class of 2014) Professional Wrestling Newsletter * Best Television Announcer (1993-1995, 1997, 1999, 2003-2006, 2008, 2009)